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The Worst Office Crimes Committed by Employees

If you’ve been working for a while, you have probably realised your coworkers can get very weird sometimes…like really weird, and in ways you wouldn’t expect them to be. But what can you do? Just like your family, you don’t get to choose your colleagues and since you have to be around them eight hours a day, 5 days per week, you just need to learn how to work with them, despite your differences.

Here some of the most annoying office behaviours that you come across at work:

#1 Gossiping

While spreading rumors and being the office gossip makes people feel good about themselves, this isn’t exactly what we call appropriate office behaviour. The person who likes to gossip often shares information about other coworkers, the company and so on. Whenever they are feeling creative, there’s nothing you can do to stop them. Just tell them they need to get off that water cooler already.

#2 Chatting

I imagine you are familiar with the office chatterbox. Whenever it seems like you have some free time, this coworker comes and talks about his personal problems and concerns like there is no tomorrow and then brings on the rest of the gang. And it’s not like you don’t have work to do - one wants to work and the other wants to talk. Most of the time, it becomes too difficult to avoid conversation with the chatty worker since you don’t want to be rude.

#3 Pretending to Be Busy

There’s this employee who always pretends to be busy while sitting at his desk or running around the office. While some people think he is a workaholic - because his head is glued to a computer screen - most of his peers are aware of the fact that he is just pretending to be the busiest person at the office.

#4 Talking on the Phone

This worker’s mobile phone has become an extension of their hand. It seems that they can’t leave their smart device down for a minute. Not an hour passes when you don’t see them talking on the phone receiving personal phone calls while you are just sitting there quietly at your office trying to ignore all of that talking in the background. What’s worse? That’s when they decide to put on the speakerphone…

#5 Eating Loudly

This noisy coworker must have invented sound. When they are eating, they make all of the weird sounds animals make while chewing their food, including spitting on you across the cubicle. Whether its biscuits, chips or apples, you have come to know the differences between what they are eating while listening to them chomping their food with their mouth open. How rude and distracting, right? The Daily Mail agrees that this is one of the ‘biggest frustrations at work’ as noisy eaters are the most annoying of their colleagues.

#6 Complaining About the Job

Complaining about the job while on the job is extremely annoying. Not to mention incredibly self-centered and rude as it leads to creating a toxic work environment that generates negative feelings and connotations about their job – which clearly they hate. This kind of behaviour destroys employee productivity and morale, as it just doesn’t feel good.

#7 Telling Lies

The biggest crime coworkers can commit is backstabbing and lying. What if you had to attend a meeting no one told you about? What if they blame you for not getting the report done when they didn’t send the information you needed in the first place? Some of your peers might lie to you or misinterpret the truth just to get the thumbs up from the boss, so always be wary about this type of sneaky behaviour. Who knew your peers could be so dangerous right? It feels like respect and professionalism just flew out of the window.

#8 Eating Smelly Food

Your coworkers should have known better than to bring smelly food into an open-space work environment. The New York Post calls these workers the ‘lunchtime offenders’ since they always bring in stinky foods that spread a disgusting odor around the office. What’s the worst type of food? That’s easy. Boiled eggs, veggies and fish! Friendly advice: Whatever you do, stay away from the colleague who eats broccoli and tuna. This food smells so nasty that I am pretty sure I can smell it right now.

#9 Clicking Pens

It’s quite likely that some of your peers have a special tick; they are only human after all. But what happens when this ends up being really annoying? The moment they start clicking their pen or on the computer mouse repeatedly? What about smashing the keyboard like they are trying to win a fight with technology? After a while, this just becomes too irritating for you to tolerate.

#10 Leaving a Mess

Retaining a clean and tidy office is essential to productivity and workplace efficiency. But some workers don’t realise that. A disrespectful peer won’t clean up the trash that is piling up on his desk or the mess he’s made in the kitchen, and still be okay with it. However, for other employees, it’s like they are back in college all over again; reliving the nightmare of having to put up with the freshmen.

While your coworkers may exhibit the weirdest and most annoying habits, don’t forget that there’s always someone worse. Some workers out there have dared to commit crimes much worse than eating smelly fish every day. Have you heard about the woman who committed the ultimate crime of identity theft and stole over 20,000 dollars from coworkers to pay her bills and go shopping? Well yeah, that happened; now I am interested to hear how you can top that!

In any case, people are supposed to be different and behave differently. So love your colleagues unless they try to steal from you… Isn’t this what makes the workplace such an interesting place to be in anyway?

What are the most annoying things your coworkers have done? Let me know in the comments section below…